Richard Carlson

Richard Dutoit Carlson (April 29, 1912 – November 25, 1977) was an American actor, director, screenwriter, and book writer whose career spanned Broadway, Hollywood film, and television. Born in Albert Lea, Minnesota, he is perhaps best remembered for his leading roles in the science fiction film It Came from Outer Space (1953) and the Universal Monster film Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).

Carlson's father was a Danish-born lawyer who settled in Albert Lea. He pursued drama at the University of Minnesota, where he wrote and directed plays and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He earned a Master of Arts degree cum laude, receiving both a $2,500 scholarship prize and an invitation to join the university faculty. He declined the faculty position and instead used the prize money to establish a repertory theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, for which he wrote, produced, directed, and acted in three plays. When the theater closed, he moved first to California to join the Pasadena Playhouse and then to New York for the Broadway stage.

His Broadway debut came in 1935 with Three Men on a Horse, where a talent scout for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer noticed him and signed him to a contract. His only work under that initial agreement was an uncredited appearance as an announcer in the short subject Desert Death (1935). He subsequently left the contract and returned to the stage, including a role in a Chicago production of Night of January 16. He appeared on Broadway from 1937 to 1939, accumulating five credits during that period. In 1937 he was featured in Brock Pemberton's production Now You've Done It and appeared alongside Ethel Barrymore in The Ghost of Yankee Doodle. The following year he wrote and staged Western Waters, starring Van Heflin, which ran for seven performances, and then rejoined Barrymore for Whiteoaks. In 1939 he returned to Broadway for the musical Stars in Your Eyes.

Carlson's film career gained momentum when David O. Selznick signed him for The Young in Heart (1938), his first feature film. He followed that with a supporting role in The Duke of West Point (1938) and second billing to Ann Sheridan in Winter Carnival (1939). Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cast him alongside Lana Turner in both These Glamour Girls and Dancing Co-Ed, both released in 1939. Through the early 1940s he appeared in a wide range of films, including Little Accident (1939), Beyond Tomorrow (1940), The Ghost Breakers (1940), The Howards of Virginia (1940), Too Many Girls (1940), No, No, Nanette (1941), Back Street (1941), The Little Foxes (1941), and several MGM productions including White Cargo (1942), Presenting Lily Mars (1943), and Young Ideas (1943).

During World War II, Carlson served in the United States Navy at the rank of lieutenant, junior grade. After the war he found fewer acting opportunities and began writing to supplement his income. He secured supporting roles in So Well Remembered (1947) and The Amazing Mr. X (1948), and the lead in Behind Locked Doors (1948). In 1950 he co-starred with Deborah Kerr and Stewart Granger in the adventure film King Solomon's Mines, shot on location in the Kenya Colony and the Belgian Congo. While filming in Africa, he wrote a series of articles for The Saturday Evening Post under the collective title "Diary of a Hollywood Safari."

Despite the success of King Solomon's Mines, Carlson continued primarily in supporting roles through the early 1950s, appearing in films including The Sound of Fury (1950), Valentino (1951), and Whispering Smith Hits London (1952). His lead role in The Magnetic Monster (1953) brought him renewed prominence in science fiction and horror. He followed that with It Came from Outer Space (1953), opposite Barbara Rush, and Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), opposite Julie Adams. He also acted in and directed Riders to the Stars (1954), the first of several features he would direct, including Four Guns to the Border (1954), Appointment with a Shadow (1957), and The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958). He wrote the screenplay for Johnny Rocco (1958).

Carlson was also active in television throughout the 1950s, appearing on programs including The Ford Theatre Hour, Cameo Theatre, Lights Out, and Robert Montgomery Presents, and writing episodes of Schlitz Playhouse and Kraft Theatre. From 1953 to 1956 he starred in the television series I Led 3 Lives. On July 14, 1951, he appeared alongside then-U.S. Senator Hubert Humphrey as a guest on the CBS live variety program Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town, broadcast from Minneapolis. In 1957 he starred in The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays, an educational science film directed by Frank Capra for the Bell Telephone Series, and played two different clergymen in separate episodes of the syndicated religious anthology series Crossroads. In 1957 and 1958 he appeared as "Mr. Fiction Writer" in three installments of the Bell Laboratory Science Series and directed the series entry The Unchained Goddess.

In 1959 Carlson was cast as Paul Drake in the Riverboat episode "The Faithless" on NBC, opposite Darren McGavin. He expanded his television directing work across series including The Man and the Challenge, This Man Dawson, Men Into Space, and Alcoa Premiere. His acting credits in the early 1960s included Bus Stop, Thriller, The Fugitive, Wagon Train, and Burke's Law, among others. He wrote episodes of Daktari and the film Island of the Lost (1967). Richard Carlson died on November 25, 1977.